Mystically, a review copy of Team Ninja’s latest appeared yesterday (as in out of the blue via Fed Ex), which caught me quite off guard. I guess that means Ryu Hayabusa’s job security is still intact (at least with me). Anyway, I’m in the process of going through it now and while it’s definitely DIFFERENT than previous installments, it’s not the completely horrific experience a few reviewers are bleating on about.

It’s obviously wearing a few modern influences on its bloody sleeves thanks to certain other popular action games out there and thanks to that, it loses some of what made the earlier games great in the process. On the other hand, if it wasn’t a Ninja Gaiden game, I’d bet good money that a lot of the bile directed against it wouldn’t be there at all. Anyway, back to playing some more – my full review should be up this weekend (if not sooner)…